Hunting Allegra

“Sorry, I just really took it like you were ready to stab me or something. Can we be friends?”

“I’m not sure that’s possible, but the ride’s over.” The attendant opens the door to let us off, and Allegra makes a run for it, causing it to sway and for me to stumble to the other side of the seat. I finally get out, but I can’t find her anywhere.

The rest of the night, I look around hoping to see what’s going on with Allegra. It’s strange that I feel this need to make sure she’s okay. I don’t see her again, but I guess it’s probably past her bedtime. I continue to roam with nothing to do for the next two hours until the party has died down.

I hear nothing but the sound of the wind as the town dispersed after the celebrations. I’ve only been here two days, but I’m already feeling uneasy. How can a town that seems so damn peaceful make me want to run back to my life in Springfield as a ward of the state? I’ve never been afraid of the dark, and still, I’m not truly afraid, but rather I feel a bit apprehensive. The little apartment I’ve been given is just past the alley, so I decide to take a shortcut.

Halfway down the longest damn alley, I’ve ever seen, I see a large man step out of a corridor. He doesn’t face me until I’m much closer—a little too close for my liking. When he turns, I see the brightest red eyes, inhuman like. It’s as if the vampire movies and shows came to life in front of me. His gaze is menacing. Then it hits me that this must be some punk ass guys playing a last-minute Halloween prank on me.

I move to step past him, but he’s in my way again. I turn slightly to go around him, but he’s in my space. “Enough with the fucking games. I’m tired, and I have a full work day ahead of me.”

“No, you do not,” he remarks, and that’s when the moonlight strikes his face. It’s the bastard that hired me. Slowly his stare becomes disturbingly frightening. I want to scream as his lips part, and he smirks sinisterly at me with his white teeth. That is when I know that there was a reason I felt it was unsafe in this town. And why the job was too good to be true.

Allegra

I couldn’t hide the way Alaric made me feel. At the ripe age of sixteen, I’ve never liked a boy before, let alone one who isn’t a boy anymore. He’s only two years older, but he acts like he’s ten years older the way he said that I was too young for him.

I hunt vampires, I don’t date, but it’s hard to pull my attention away from him, and that makes me mad. I should’ve ignored him and ran away before we shared that small space together, but I couldn’t. Something in me drags my gaze back to him. He caught the attention of two hot ladies probably closer to him in age, and I wanted to stab them. It’s nuts because I’ve seen them around town and didn’t think twice about them, but now I hate those chicks.

I have to forget about him and remember why I’m here in Manchester, New York. For the past few years, there have been rumors of missing people, and that’s a curious thing for a small town.

Since there’s a lot of paranormal activity in this area, I thought it was best to find the vampire who murdered my father. It’s been a full year without him. He’d been missing for a month before the word got around that the remains of a man had been found in the woods unrecognizable. Since then I’ve been on the hunt for his killer. Vlad Graf, a vampire with skill and cunning, but not as strong as the others. I’ve hunted them down, but I have yet to kill a single one. I wasn’t old enough for it, my father insisted. I doubted that to be true. Now, more than ever, I was ready.

The eerie feeling that a blood-sucking beast was in the area grew in me as the day had given way to the night. I patrolled the town square where the festivities were in full swing until ten minutes ago, now it has died down and the crowd returning to their homes. It’s the stillness in the air that screams to me. As I make my way to the little apartment I have conned myself into, a large gust of wind catches my attention. Someone has swooped in for a visit. I spin around and see a shadow enter the alley just across from me. I pull my crossbow out of my backpack and make my way into hell’s path.